New images of the gunman suspected in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson were released Thursday by the New York Police Department as the manhunt continued, leading police to an Upper West Side hostel.
Meanwhile, media reports indicated that law enforcement officials believe the suspect came to Manhattan on a Greyhound bus that started its route in Atlanta.
CNN reported that authorities do not know whether the suspect boarded the bus in Atlanta or elsewhere. There are multiple Greyhound pickup locations across the city, with the main hub located downtown on Forsyth Street.
In NYC, Port Authority police believe the suspect arrived in Manhattan on Nov. 24 and then went to the hostel, CNN reported.
Atlanta police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they “have not been asked or requested to assist in (NYPD’s) investigation.”
A Greyhound spokesperson told the AJC that the company is “fully cooperating with authorities to assist in their efforts. As the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”
Other media also reported on the bus’s connection to Atlanta, including ABC News and the New York Daily News.
Images, taken at the HI New York City Hostel on Amsterdam Avenue near West 104th Street, appear to show the suspect without a mask and smiling at someone as he stands by the front desk.
The surveillance images were taken before Thompson was gunned down outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown, police sources said. Detectives swarmed the hostel at about 4 p.m. Wednesday after tracking the alleged gunman to the location.
Credit: Picasa
Credit: Picasa
Port Authority police helping NYPD investigators track the movements of the alleged shooter have determined the suspect came into the city on a Greyhound bus through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown, a source told the New York Daily News on Thursday night. The source added that there is footage of him walking through the Eighth Avenue bus terminal.
The suspect was staying in a fourth-floor room of the hostel before the shooting, according to hostel residents. It was not immediately disclosed how long he had stayed in the low-priced room before the shooting occurred.
Matheus Taranto, who was visiting the U.S. from Brazil and was staying in a room next to the suspect, realized something was off when all the police arrived and began running forensic tests in one of the bathrooms used by floor tenants.
“I was going to brush my teeth, and there was (a detective) and he was like, ‘No, you can’t go to this bathroom,’” Taranto, 24, recalled.
He didn’t realize until Thursday that they were looking for the man who killed Thompson. The room he had been staying in was locked Thursday, Taranto said.
“I’m used to violence because I’m from Rio de Janeiro,” said Taranto, a sports reporter who arrived from Brazil on Thanksgiving to catch some local basketball and football games. “There’s a lot there, but, like, not this kind.”
The NYPD put out images of the suspect Thursday in the hopes someone recognizes him. Police are offering $10,000 reward for any information leading to the gunman’s capture.
“The full investigative efforts of the NYPD are continuing, and we are asking for the public’s help,” the NYPD said on X as they released the new images.
Detectives have been visiting hostels in the area after they tracked the suspect to the area, police sources said.
The suspect is accused of killing Thompson, 50, as he walked to a Hilton hotel on W. 54th Street and Sixth Avenue, where he was about to address colleagues and company investors at a conference, police said.
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Credit: Brynn Anderson
Credit: Brynn Anderson
Harrowing surveillance footage appeared to show the man shoot Thompson in the back, before firing at least three more times.
He is then accused of fleeing the scene on a bicycle and disappearing in Central Park, but police officers picked up his trail late Wednesday night on the Upper West Side.
— AJC staff reports contributed to this article by Thomas Tracy and Julian Roberts-Grmela with the New York Daily News.
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